As the Trail Blazers plot to add a player to their roster in free agency, they will subtract a member from their front office staff.

Chad Buchanan, the team's director of college scouting, has accepted an assistant general manager job with the Charlotte Hornets, Blazers GM Neil Olshey confirmed to The Oregonian on Tuesday. Buchanan will reunite with Rich Cho in Charlotte, teaming up with a general manager he worked under for 10 months in Portland during the 2010-11 season.

Buchanan's departure, first reported by Yahoo Sports, won't have a significant impact on the Blazers' free agent pursuits, but it does signal the end of one of the franchise's longest-tenured executives. He has been with the Blazers since 2004, when Kevin Pritchard — then the team's director of player personnel — hired him as a scout, and has seen it all in more than 10 years with the organization.

Over the years, those who've worked closest with Buchanan have praised not only his scouting ability, but also his character and always-positive demeanor. And there have been plenty of people to offer judgment.

Buchanan has worked under five general managers as part of an ever-evolving front office and served as an interim general manager twice, including during the entire 2011-12 season after Cho was fired. That was a lockout-shortened season and one of the most turbulent in franchise history as the Blazers opened by hastily putting together a roster in 10 days and finished with a fire sale that included the firing of longtime coach Nate McMillan.

Buchanan also was a part of the front office that selected Greg Oden with the No. 1 pick of the 2007 NBA draft, a move that will remain controversial as long as the Blazers exist.

But more than lockout failures and draft busts, Blazers fans will most remember Buchanan for his role in bringing All-Star point guard Damian Lillard to Portland. It was Buchanan who orchestrated the trade that sent Gerald Wallace to the Brooklyn Nets for the first-round pick that Olshey later used to draft Lillard.

Buchanan also was co-interim general manager the summer the Blazers signed shooting guard Wesley Matthews to a free agent contract, an eyebrow-raising move at the time that turned out to be successful.

Buchanan is the second member of the Blazers' front office staff to leave this offseason, joining Mike Born, whose contract was not renewed.